Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - A Good Soldier of Jesus Christ - Part 2

There was a time in my life when having a "quiet time" or "personal time for worship" was optional. Not any more. In fact, though I still have occasional days when I miss (thankfully much fewer and farther between than before), my goal is to not go even one day without having had this time with God first thing in the morning. Regrettably, I can speak from too many painful experiences when a missed quiet time has resulted in an open door for bad decision-making and missed opportunities to make a difference in the lives of others. And the more quiet times we neglect, the wider the door opens for personal failure.

I find that our private worship is not only necessary for wise decision making, it is also the key to our effectiveness in reaching lost people. If reaching out to people with the message of Jesus automatically places us in a spiritual battle, what value can our devotional life have in preparing us for this battle? Let's look at it from the perspective of a soldier, and we will focus today primarily on the role of God's Word. First of all, a soldier must have proper nutrition. Without a steady and a healthy diet, a soldier's strength will soon dissipate, eventually leading to exhaustion and resulting in bad judgments. God's Word is more than just our food for the soul. It's the very essence of our survival on the battle field. Jesus makes it clear that we cannot survive spiritually without His word (Matthew 4:4 ).

The other day I past by a fast food restaurant and noticed several cars lined up in the drive-through...a common occurrence for this restaurant. We all have seen this and experienced it. Allow me to make a simple observation. People chose the drive-through most likely because they didn't have the time (or in some cases, the money) to go to a nicer "dine in" restaurant where they could relax and enjoy a healthy meal. And the thought hit me that there have been times when I have been guilty of doing the same thing with my spiritual life. How many times have I tried to "do the Christian life" by living on a consistent diet of drive-through quiet times?

Over time, the fast-food lifestyle catches up with you and cannot sustain the demands that life brings to the body. And it is the same way in our spiritual life. Our time with the Savior each day is the most important part of our whole day, even if it means giving up some sleep to have this time with God so that we give ourselves the time to dig deep and truly feed on His Word. Now, having a quiet time at all is great. Let's celebrate that. There are no "bad" quiet times. But as I'm writing this blog, I'm being reminded of the anemic quiet time I had recently due to going to bed late and getting out of bed later than I needed to for quality time with God before coming to work. And like someone who eats a greasy fast-food burger after not having eaten one in a long time, I could tell the difference in my spiritual health as a result.

Good nutrition is essential to become a dependable soldier for Jesus. Secondly, if a soldier is to carry out the plans of his superiors, he must learn to think like his superiors. And the only way he will learn to think like them is to be around them often. It is the same way with our relationship with Jesus. After all, our natural thoughts are not His thoughts, and our natural ways aren't His ways (Isaiah 55:8 ). If we want to think like Him and act like Him, we've got to spend time with Him daily in His Word.

As the old saying goes, we become like those we are around the most. I'm reminded of the reputation that Peter and John acquired among the people of their day, found in Acts 4:13 . "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus." Wouldn't it be great to have the reputation of having spent considerable time with Jesus? How does that happen? By realizing that God has His daily agenda for us and we only have just enough time in a day to do His will, we are motivated to spend the beginning of every day with Jesus, worshiping Him and receiving from Him the wisdom in His Word needed to carry out His plans for the day.

We not only need to receive a healthy dose of spiritual nutrition from God's Word each time we are in it, but it also helps us lose unnecessary weight that can slow down our progress to victory. Now the weight I'm referring to is not physical pounds and inches, but rather the things that keep us from being effective in our witness of Christ. Hebrews 12:1 says "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

How do we know what we need to get rid of? God's Word acts as a mirror and shows us what is keeping us back from maximum effectiveness. "For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." In His love, God refuses to let us stay the same person that we were the day before. And in His mercy He uses the reading of His Word and our application of it to make us more like His Son.

If it is true that the spiritual success of any Christ-follower is ultimately determined by the consistency and passion of his or her personal devotional life, then perhaps we need to make some adjustments in how we are going about things. Take a few minutes to reflect on your personal devotional life. Do you have a specific place where you meet with God each day? Is it quiet and free from distractions? Do you have some sort of reading plan, some direction in God's Word for what you will read from day to day? And are you intentional to find something to apply from what you are reading?

In our next blog we will talk about the role that prayer plays in our mission.